Retractable grabber device and game

ABSTRACT

A game comprising a hand-held device and a retractable magnetic grabber connected to the hand-held device by a flexible cord or string. A person using the educational game may pull on the grabber to extend it to a desired length, and then proceed to attach the grabber to any one of a plurality of targets. When a target or group of targets have been attached to the grabber, the person may then press a pressure sensitive button on the hand-held device, and the grabber is retracted back to the hand-held device at a self-controlling speed. The targets may be magnetized pieces covered with a dry-erasable material, allowing a parent or teacher to write on the pieces the desired responses to educational questions posed to a person. Some embodiments may include a timer and wireless communications for tracking interactivity.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority of currently pending provisional application 62/310,144, filed Mar. 18, 2016, and incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The invention is related generally to educational games for people, and more particularly, to an educational game including capture devices to retrieve or grab objects.

Related Art

Magnetic educational board games are well known in the art, particularly for small children, such as 3-7 years. In general, these educational games may take the form of self-correcting board games, where a small child places large, colorful pieces on a magnetic game board. If the magnetic piece is placed incorrectly on the board, it will not stick and the child will have to try again.

The purpose of these magnetic board games is generally matching a puzzle piece with its proper position on the magnetic game board and may take the form of placing large colorful tiles with pictures into bins designated by words, matching numbers with an answer in a simple mathematical equation, or placing shapes, such as states of the U.S., on a map.

Generally, for smaller children, the magnetic pieces or tiles are large and colorful, and easy for small hands to manipulate, and by properly placing the magnetic pieces or tiles, the child is engaged while learning and developing his or her skills and knowledge.

Every parent is concerned with stimulating his or her child's creativity and imagination. Various categories of toys exist that stimulate different areas of a child's development. For example, building blocks and construction toys develop creativity, imagination, eye-hand coordination, shape recognition, thinking and problem solving skills, sensory stimulation, and encourage discovery and experimentation and relationship recognition.

Board games such as chess and checkers develop strategic and critical thinking skills, social and emotional skills, sequential thinking skills, and problem-solution skills. Musical toys develop self-expression and creativity. Themed play sets (with figures and vehicles) and dolls develop the ability to create a pretend world where the child makes all the decisions and builds a sense of security and self-confidence (where the child controls the action and makes decisions). Puzzles develop mental stimulation, thinking and problem solving skills, and association skills.

In addition, toys help a child learn social skills, develop cognitive skills, enhance fine motor skills, stimulate curiosity, entertain, and increase attention span (especially in an era in which many children may have very short attention spans).

Many modern day toys fail at developing a child's imagination to the fullest. To assist the child in imagination development, one can return to simpler toys that require the child to think about playtime. Such toys should be simple in design, be of rugged construction, be easy to use, and be fun to play with over an extended period of time, as well as being age-suitable.

In view of the foregoing, there is an ongoing need for providing improved educational games that will engage and entertain children while developing their skills and capabilities.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure provides systems, apparatus, instruments, devices, methods, and/or processes, as described by way of example in implementations set forth herein for an educational game for children of various ages comprising a housing containing a retractable cord or string mechanism. The flexible cord or string is attached to a grabber that contains a magnet. Magnetized targets or objects will attach to the magnet when it placed over the targets or objects by the child. Once the correctly matched targets or objects have attached to the retractable magnet, the child may then press a button on the housing, and the magnet, with the targets or objects remaining attached, is returned to the housing.

In an example method of using an embodiment of this educational game, the child starts the educational game by holding the housing with the grabber fitting snuggly against the housing. The child then pulls the grabber from the housing, extending it to its desired length, where the grabber may be held in place between rollers in the housing. With the grabber dangling from the housing, the child then places the grabber over the desired target(s), which may be magnetized, so that the desired target(s) attached to the grabber. At that point, the child may then press a button on the housing that causes the cord or string to retract back into the housing, thus allowing the child to retrieve the desired target. The button may be pressure sensitive allowing the child to control the speed of the retracting grabber in order to keep all the target(s) intact as they travel back to the top.

An educational game in accordance with the present disclosure may be played separately by a single child, or in competition with another child with a similar device, where each child attempts to correctly retrieve more targets than the other child. In the latter situation, the competitive game could be of a predefined time duration or until all available targets have been taken. Alternatively, two or more children may each play the game separately for a designated period of time, and each child's score tallied at the end of the game.

An object of the present disclosure is to improve children's skills and capabilities, such as motor skills, spelling, math, geography, colors, and other school subjects. This may be accomplished through the nature of the targets. First, the concept of magically grabbing the targets and retracting them up, so as to be enticing to the child. Second, the educational aspect of each target may take the form of an answer to a mathematical equation or a piece of a puzzle. In another embodiment, the targets may be tiles covered with a re-writeable material so that a parent or teacher may re-use the tiles for differing educational lessons.

Other devices, apparatus, systems, methods, features and advantages of the disclosure will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages included within this disclosure, be within the scope of the invention and the accompanying claims.

The foregoing Summary of the Invention is not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure contained herein nor limit the scope of the appended claims. To the contrary, as will be appreciated by those persons skilled in the art, variations of the foregoing described embodiments may be implemented without departing from the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects and features of the invention may be understood with reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of the present invention taken together in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective front view of an educational game in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective side view of the grabber of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3A shows a front outside view of the front cover of the housing of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3B shows a front inside view of the front cover of the housing of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4A shows a front inside view of the rear cover of the housing of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4B shows a front outside view of the rear cover of the housing of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 shows a bottom perspective view of the push button or trigger positioned in the housing of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6A shows a front view of an example of an embodiment of a target of the educational game shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6B shows an example dry erase marker writing on the targets of the educational game shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of a retractable cord or string mechanism.

FIG. 8A shows the rear transparent view of the housing of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8B shows the front transparent view of the housing of FIG. 1.

FIG. 9A shows the vertical side transparent view of the housing of FIG. 1.

FIG. 9B shows the horizontal side transparent view of the housing of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to FIG. 1 and corresponding FIG. 8, an educational game 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The educational game 100 comprises a housing 102, a grabber 106, and a spring tension button or trigger 120. The housing 102 is built to fit around a standard retracting cord or string mechanism 118. The grabber 106 is connected by a cord or string 104, where the cord 104 may be stored, at least in part, inside a retracting mechanism 118 (shown on FIGS. 8A & B) inside the housing. In the retracted position, the grabber 106 is positioned underneath the housing 102, held in place by tension provided by a trigger 120 (shown on FIGS. 8A & B). Both the tension and the trigger may be spring enhanced to provide for easier handling and automatic locking in place. The spring trigger 120 holds the cord or string in place between rollers 122 (shown on FIGS. 8A & B) until the user pushes the trigger to retract the cord or string back inside the retracting spool mechanism 118 inside the housing 102. Similar to a push button tape measure, where the tape stays retracted until the push button is pressed, retracting the tape back into the housing.

In one method of operation, a child using the educational game 100 may hold the housing 102 and pull on the grabber 106 extending it to a desired length. When the child has attached the grabber 106 to a desired target(s) that he or she wishes to retrieve, he or she may press the trigger 120, which releases the hold on the cord 104 and the grabber 106 returns to its original position underneath the housing 102. The child may then remove the target from the grabber 106 and retrieve another target.

Turning to FIG. 2, the grabber 106 of FIG. 1 is shown. In this implementation, the grabber 106 takes the form of a segmented worm. As an example, a magnet may be contained within segment 108. In other implementations, the grabber 106 may take other forms, including a simple magnet in the form of a horseshoe.

FIG. 3A shows a front outside view of the front cover 300 of the housing 102 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 3B shows a front inside view of the front cover 300 of the housing 102.

FIG. 4A shows a front outside view of the rear cover 350 of the housing 102 of FIG. 1. And FIG. 4B shows a front inside view of the rear cover 350 of the housing 102 of FIG. 1. To form the housing 102, front cover 300 and rear cover 350 are joined to form a cavity 116 into which a retention mechanism is positioned. This retention mechanism may include rollers 122 kept in certain positions by spring tension and a button or trigger that move the rollers 122. The housing 102 is designed to fit a standard retractable cord or string device 118 (such as a retractable name badge)

FIG. 5 shows a bottom perspective view of a lever or trigger used to operate the tensioning mechanism with a spring fitted inside a cavity 114. The lever or trigger holds and releases the cord or string from moving between the rollers 122.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, 9A, and 9B are transparent views of the housing 102 to show the cord or string 104 from the retractable device 118 positioned between the rollers 122 held in place by the trigger 120.

FIGS. 6A and 6B shows examples of embodiments of target of an educational game as disclosed herein. A graphical representation of a fish, which may be identical on both sides, is shown. Accordingly, in this embodiment, the target may be a glossy laminated piece 112 with a metal layer 110 hidden in between the front and rear layers of the target.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of a retractable cord or string mechanism. On FIG. 7 is a cord 104 designed to be wound around a spool (not shown). The spool may be part of a retractable cord reel. Conventional spring-loaded retractable cord reels may be employed to effectuate certain embodiments in keeping with the present disclosure.

Targets

Also disclosed herein are embodiments of a target with a writable surface that allows users to inscribe indicia to effect different games. These embodiments are exemplary and should not be limiting in any way. In addition, different shaped targets may be used such as squares, triangles and circles as teaching tools for shapes. Different animal or plant structures may be used to teach different types of species.

All targets used may be covered with a dry erasable material, which allows a parent or teacher to write numbers or letters on each target as appropriate for the educational lesson sought to be taught, which numbers and letters can then be erased and replaced with new numbers and letters as required as seen in FIG. 6B. Thus the targets may be used in the same manner as flash cards. Also, the targets may be any metal object in the event of creating new games with other possessions, or as a tool to pick up metal objects that are out of reach.

Timer

Some embodiments may include a timer for measuring the performance of the user. In these embodiments a child may be asked to pick up numbers or animal shapes and track their time as a measure of performance. In some embodiments a manual timer may be incorporated into the housing 102 and coupled to the retractable cord mechanism 118. This coupling may effectuate control of the timer by counting when the cord is extended. For example and without limitation, when the cord is pulled from the housing, the timer may start. And when the cord is retracted the time may cease counting, but display a measure of time the cord was out and, consequently the time for the user to locate and return the target.

Coupling a timer to the retractable cord mechanism 118 may be effectuated by using a magnetic switch which would control a signal to the timer when the grabber 106 is moved far enough from the housing 102. The control signal may be applied to a start/stop control on the timer. In other embodiments a proximity or mechanical sensor may be use to sense when the grabber 106 is removed from the housing 102.

The timer may be effectuated using a programmable controller such as a commercially available Raspberry PI, or Arduino device. These programmable controllers offer input/output functions including digital I/O for switches, analog I/O, displays, display drivers and wireless connectivity. In some embodiments the timer may be a programmable controller that sense switch movement and displays the time. With an additional speaker, the programmable controller may provide sound or music when the grabber 106 is deployed or provide other sound functions such as a bell when the grabber 106 is returned to an un-deployed position.

The addition of a programmable controller allows for wireless communication such as Bluetooth. Wireless connectivity may allow for coupling the programmable controller to a second wireless device such as a smartphone. The controls on the smartphone (i.e. display, keyboard, sound and the like) may provide an alternative interface for the device.

One having skill in the art will recognize that the programmable controller maybe coupled wirelessly to a smart device and operated remotely. One major advantage of control by a smart device is the ability to record operations. This will let an educator track the time a child takes to perform a certain skill and thus measure growth and learning. The educator may also changes some operating features using a smart device. This may entail changing the music or timing for a game.

Although the particular embodiments shown and described above will prove to be useful in many applications in the art to which the present invention pertains, further modifications of the present invention will occur to persons skilled in the art. All such modifications are deemed to be within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An educational game, the educational game comprising: a hand-held device enclosing a retractable mechanism; a grabber containing at least one magnet; and a flexible cord connecting the grabber with the hand-held device, where the retractable mechanism allows the grabber to be extended apart from the hand-held device and held in an extended state, and then retracted back into the housing by a push of a button or trigger. 